Friday, 24 September 2010

John Payne - The Mirrour which Flatters not

Original

John Payne - The Mirrour which Flatters not. The Mirrour which Flatters not is an engraving, probably by the 17th century English artist John Payne, which appears in a 1639 translation of a book of the same title. The engraving depicts a skeleton dressed in the regalia of a king, seated on a throne of skulls, with its left foot atop a globe, a scepter in its right hand, and a mirror in its left hand, inscribed with the words "The Mirrour which Flatters not."

Epigraphs inscribed beneath the engraving read "O that they were Wise, that they understood This, that they would Consider their Latter End! Deut. 32:29" and "–Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula,—Iuvenal."